1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information-display control apparatuses and methods, and more particularly, to an information-display control apparatus and method which allow information related to video contents to be listed and a video content being reproduced and that being selected to be displayed at respective predetermined areas.
2. Description of the Related Art
In these years, an electronic program guide (EPG) has been gradually put into practice in TV broadcasting. TV receivers and set-top boxes (STBs), such as CS tuners and CATV tuners, which support an EPG function have been widely spread. In addition, personal computers having a video function for recording programs (hereinafter called video contents) by using a web site which provides EPG data on the Internet have been commercially available.
With such EPG data, the user can directly check a program list displayed on a screen and can easily make a recording reservation or a viewing reservation of a program to be viewed, on the spot, compared with newspapers and magazines which provide TV broadcasting program guides.
Since information related to video contents, such as the video content being currently reproduced, video contents which have already been viewed, and the popularity of video contents, is not displayed in a conventional EPG screen, the user cannot easily understand the state of each video content. As a result, when the user selects a desired video content on the EPG screen, if the user forgets video contents which the user has viewed, the user may view or record again a video content which the user has already viewed.
In these days, hard-disk drives (HDDs) of audio-visual units have been made to have larger capacities and digital video recorders having a random-access storage have been commercially available. It is expected that units which can record video contents for several hundreds of hours, further, for several thousands of hours will be developed. With these units, all programs in one week at a predetermined channel may be recorded. In such a case, the EPG data needs to provide not only a future program guide but a past program guide.
It is also expected, for example, that recorded video contents are re-arranged by categories to form virtual channels.
To display past EPG data or EPG data for virtual channels, the conventional EPG screen is insufficient in terms of functions.
This is due to some reasons. First, the provided EPG data is for the present and the future. Since EPG data for video contents which have already been broadcasted is deleted in the conventional EPG screen, a past program table cannot be displayed. Secondly, when EPG data is displayed by a conventional EPG display method, if video contents are those recorded, information related to the video contents is not displayed, such as whether the medium data of the video contents have already been deleted, whether the video contents have already been viewed, and whether a video content is being reproduced, the popularity of the video contents, and in addition, when the video contents were broadcasted. Thirdly, each video content cannot be checked until the EPG screen is closed. Fourthly, all information related to each video content cannot be displayed on the EPG screen by the conventional EPG display method.
The channel is conventionally switched by the use of a channel button on a remote commander. When a program is selected on a past EPG data or on EPG data for virtual channels, the channel cannot be changed.
It is also expected that digital-versatile-disk (DVD) players which have started spreading will have a disk-changer function to manage a number of video contents.
With the progress of communication technologies, video on demand (VOD) has been becoming a reality. In video on demand, a content-list display method and an operation method which are easy and convenient are important for the user to search a huge library for a video content to be viewed.
In a conventional method for displaying a content list, however, information related to video contents is not displayed, such as whether video contents have been viewed and which the video content being reproduced is. It is difficult for the user to understand the conditions of video contents.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above conditions. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to display information related to contents, and the content being reproduced and that being selected at respective predetermined areas, on a content-list screen to allow the user to easily understand the conditions of the contents in a short period.
The foregoing object is achieved in one aspect of the present invention through the provision of an information-display control apparatus including recording means for recording a plurality of contents; specifying means for specifying content information related to the plurality of contents; first display control means for controlling the display of a list of the plurality of contents according to the content information specified by the specifying means; second display control means for controlling, when a predetermined content is selected among the plurality of contents displayed in the list by the first display control means, such that the content information corresponding to the predetermined content is displayed in a first area; and third display control means for controlling, when an instruction is issued to reproduce the predetermined content among the plurality of contents displayed in the list by the first display control means, such that the predetermined content stored in the recording means is read and displayed in a second area.
The first display control means may control the display such that the plurality of contents are differentiated by their newness according to the date and time when each content is recorded.
The third display control means may control the display such that the content being reproduced is differentiated from the other contents.
The content information may include a content identification ID, a medium-data state, a viewing state, and a popularity.
The foregoing object is achieved in another aspect of the present invention through the provision of an information-display control method including a recording control step of controlling recording of a plurality of contents; a specifying step of specifying content information related to the plurality of contents; a first display control step of controlling the display of a list of the plurality of contents according to the content information specified in the specifying step; a second display control step of controlling, when a predetermined content is selected among the plurality of contents displayed in the list in the process of the first display control step, such that the content information corresponding to the predetermined content is displayed in a first area; and a third display control step of controlling, when an instruction is issued to reproduce the predetermined content among the plurality of contents displayed in the list in the process of the first display control step, such that the predetermined content for which recording is controlled in the process of the recording control step is read and displayed in a second area.
As described above, according to an information-display control apparatus and method of the present invention, when a content is selected among a plurality of contents displayed in a list, the content information corresponding to the selected content is displayed in a first area, and when an instruction is issued to reproduce the selected content, the content is displayed in a second area. Therefore, the user can easily understand the conditions of contents within a short period.